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Along with the documents and physical items in the collection of the Museum, many photos, videos and audio recordings also chronicle the growth of the DeLorean company and development of the DeLorean car. Do you have something that would be of interest? Learn how you can help keep history alive!

ONE of one! factory burgundy interior delorean

The existence of a factory built burgundy interior DeLorean had been rumored for years, Some mentions were found in various web forums and the Christopher Bradley Archive contains some references and even a photo or two. Museum volunteers James Espey and Sarah Heasty were able to track down the car in England, and spent some time on a vacation viewing the car and taking these photos.

DMCL training building - circa 1979/1980

These photos of the DMCL Training Building appear to be from late 1979 or early 1980, but little else is known about them. We're hoping that someone seeing these can better narrow down the time frame or even better, recognize themselves or someone they know in these photos. Help us keep history alive and contact us if you do!

UPDATE (February 19, 2018): Bill Martin, an illustrator for DMC, was able to identify some of the people in these photos! Check the captions!

john delorean speech - circa 1979

This recording of a speech by John DeLorean to a group of automobile dealers in Northern California was submitted to us by a long-time DeLorean owner who has asked to remain anonymous. The exact date is unknown, but judging from topics mentioned in the speech, it appears to be mid-October 1979.

The first couple minutes are one of the event hosts introducing John DeLorean who talks about the car industry in general, and more specifically about the development progress of DMC.

building the visioneering delorean

In 1979, DMC contracted with a Visioneering in suburban Detroit to create the data for the stainless body panel dies, as well as create a set of kirksite dies for the purpose of supplying early prototype panels. The scope quickly grew to the build of a show car for the 1980 NADA show meant to represent the "final" spec of the car. Click here to see the entire gallery of photos.

​Special thanks to Tom Vertin, Jr. of Visioneering for the donation of these photographs and press clippings.

TESTING & CERTIFICATION AT MIRA

MIRA (Motor Industry Research Association) - now Horiba/MIRA - is an automotive engineering and development consultancy company in Warwickshire, United Kingdom that provided product engineering, research, testing, information and certification services to the DeLorean Motor Company.

DELOREAN AIRBAG STUDY CRASH TESTS

.Two early production DeLorean cars were used as part of a National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration study on the feasibility of adding air bags to a car that was developed without airbags in mind.

These videos have created a great deal of misinformation over the years. The DeLorean Museum is pleased to make the full, uncut videos available of both the 35mph test and the 40mph test along with the full report document, which states in part:

"...the injury measures for this (35mph) test are quite low being well below the injury criteria limits..."

"...the injury measures for this (40mph) are still well below the injury criteria limits..."

"Although the outward appearance of the crashed vehicle looks as if the crash was quite severe, the opposite is true. The vehicle crushed approximately 44 inches... In fact the compartment interior dimensions were still quite generous so that most of the original compartment volume was maintained."

"It should be noted that the vehicles tested were pre-production prototypes with various cosmetic flaws. One problem we encountered was the driver door on the Test No. 2 (40mph) vehicle. Of the two door latches on the driver side - one forward and one rearward - we could at test time only latch the forward latch...This was manifested by more crush of the driver side and a net clock-wise rotation (when looking from above of the entire vehicle during the test."

Report courtesy of NHTSA, videos courtesy of the National Crash Analysis Center Library at George Washington University.

PROMOTIONAL INTERVIEW WITH JOHN DELOREAN

In 1985, John DeLorean had just been acquitted in the Los Angeles criminal trial and then worked with Ted Schwarz to publish his autobiography. His publisher, Zondervan Publishing House, produced this 11 minute and 30 second interview with John and distributed it to potential book retailers via audio cassette to encourage them to stock the book.

This rare recording of this seldom heard audio interview is made available through the generosity of Brian McCool.

INTERVIEW WITH LEIF MONTIN

In 2012, Leif Montin served as a consultant to the DeLorean Motor Company (Texas). Over the course of nearly an hour, Leif recounted his time with the original DeLorean Motor Company from 1979-1983. The video is split up into five parts - be sure to watch them all!​Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5